Time Limit: Within Seven Days
by thekeylessdoor
Summary: Day 1 of the Reaper's Game. With no recollection of how he got there, Neku Sakuraba wakes up in the middle of a huge crowd, soon discovering they can't see him. Contains no spoilers. Sorry if this sort of thing has been done before...


**A/N:** Well, IGN gave out their video game awards, and upon TWEWY  
recieving several from them -- the most notable being DS game of the  
year -- I wanted to write something as a sort of honor thing...I guess you could call it. XD  
If that makes sense, heh heh. Pretty much a one-shot, but I'm considering  
doing another for a different day. --points to Neku meeting Josh  
day-- I don't know if people have already done this sort of thing,  
but if they have, then you ought to know I'm not trying to copy  
anybody with anything. I did this of my own, and I'm actually kind of  
iffy about how it turned out...Also, it has might have weird format because  
believe it or not but I typed this all up on a phone, not a computer.  
Anyway, critique or reviews are always welcome. Hope you enjoy the  
story. =D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _The World Ends With You._ _jupiter_ and _Square_  
_Enix_ do. No rights held by me, they're the geniuses here. I'm writing  
this without permission, earning no profit, all that jazz.  
Now, if only they'd turn this into a franchise...Come on Squeenix, give us a sequel or prequel!

**Summary:** _With no recollection of how he got there, Neku Sakuraba  
wakes up in the middle of a huge crowd, discovering a mysterious  
skull pin in hand, which may or may not be the reason for hearing voices in his head. Before he can figure out what's going on, moving  
graffiti, ticking hands, and junk mail stand to greet him_.  
**NO SPOILERS ARE WRITTEN**, this is only told from Day 1, after all. =3

**All credit** goes to FlikFreak for coming up with the idea that Noise  
make static-like sounds, and thank you for allowing me to use that  
idea here. ^_^ For different Noise though, I'll be giving them other sounds. They should have done these in the game! XD

**Warning:** Rated T for some strong, brief language.

* * *

So many voices.

They filled Shibuya's air; always light-hearted chatter.

When so few spoke truth.

Person after person walked by me, living their lives by being loud and obnoxious and rude and mean. People suck.

**Outta my face.**

Standing in the Crossing, it was hard to see with the mass around me. I nearly missed my cross walk turn three times.

**You're blocking my view.**

The afternoon loomed on, Shibuya beginning to be covered in lights from all the buildings. Out of those buildings came crowds, laughing and talking to each other. They never let the city be quiet.

**Shut up.**

**Stop talking.**

A girl of my age bumped straight into me. I kept walking, purposefully ignoring her when she called out an apology.

**Just go the hell away.**

At last, the wall tag in Udagawa was before me. The one thing I could look at for ages and not get even remotely ticked off.

There was something in the art.

Something...that called to me.

**All the world needs is me.**

**I got my values...**

**So you can keep yours, alright?**

I put my headphones on. The only thing that could shut out the loud world best.

**I don't get people.**

**Never have, Never will.**

jupiter and

Square Enix present

The World Ends with You

A chime of street lights signaling the "okay to go" ring echoed through the area. The thrum of peoples' loud footsteps vibrated into my ears. Their words meshed together in an incoherent blur.

My eyes opened slowly, and I found myself laid out face-flat on concrete floor somewhere, people walking all around me in every direction.

How did I get here?

Standing up, I tried to ignore them as best I could. They were so loud...

I noticed a round, thin object in the palm of my right hand. It had a white skull design on a black backdrop. It turned out to be a pin, based off the way the back of it looked. The pin was lifeless, of course, but something about it felt like it was a part of me.

I tossed the pin in the air; it flipped several times before landing back in my hand, soundlessly. The instant it touched my skin again, something changed drastically.

About a thousand different sounds ringed in my head, all at once. There was no way to clearly verify this feeling, this sensation. The closest thing you could compare it to was being at a rock concert, the band playing, with the crowd shouting at the top of their lungs every other insignificant thing. It got to be too much. I wanted it to end.

_Just stop already._

And then, unexpectedly, everything went normal again.

"What the..." I said to myself, with complete shock at the fact that miraculously my ears were not bleeding. "I can hear voices in my head!" Certainly, this sort of thing should not have just occurred. _What just happened?_ As if an answer would just come out to greet me, smiling in all its glory, along with an _'oh, I'm just kiddin' you, ha ha. Let me put things back the way they were!'_

Shaking my head at that thought, my fingers glossed over the skull pin. I held it up to eye level to stare with wonder at it. Or annoyance. Same difference. _And where'd this pin come from?_

My arms folded, eyes thinning at the small object. _Wonder if there's a connection..._ I tried focusing on the pin, but not flipping it this time. Whatever this pin was, carelessly playing with it like that would only grant me a headache from all that noise. If pins could do such things, of course. And surely they couldn't.

I wasn't sure of what I was doing, the actions just came naturally. Pressing gently on the pin, my eyes closed, and my hands went to cover the area just around my purple headphones playing music in the background. But it only seemed like these eyes had been opened.

"Focus..."  
The word slipped effortlessly out of my mouth, without control. I could see the entire area I was standing in very clearly, from a sort of bird's-eye-view, but it was different...somehow. Every person that stood within a decent distance from me emitted a faint blue glow, just like the translucent-blue filter that covered everything.

When I focused on one of the faint glowing lights, words formed themselves in my head:

_"I'm so tired, I have, like, negative energy... I hear red viper and ginseng can really help, but what kind of drink has that stuff in it?"_

And another...

_"Today, I'm gonna make 100 people happy. What goes around, comes around!"_

Then this...

_"Wonder if Kyo will be boarding at the park today... I gotta get out there and see his tricks in person sometime."_

My eyes snapped open, and I pulled my hands back down. With a slight shiver, I tried to hold myself together. _Voices! Definitely voices!_

My arms folded themselves again. _But why?_ A gasp escaped my lips as I finally realized -- _Am I hearing people's thoughts!?_ I held my fist up in the air, to stare at the mysterious pin without focusing too heavily on the thing. _What the hell IS this pin?_

A small beeping intrrupted my inner turmoil. "Huh?" I jumped lightly, then glanced around. "Whose phone? Mine?" Reluctantly pulling out the phone from my shorts pocket, **1 NEW TEXT MESSAGE** displayed on the LCD. Opening the phone, the text appeared instantly.

Now, who the hell would be texting me? I'd be sure to track down this number and make sure they'd never text me again.

I read aloud as my eyes skimmed through it, suspiciously. It was a very brief message.

" 'Reach one-oh-four. You have sixty minutes. Fail, and face erasure. The Reapers.' "

I held my breath, glaring at the text. "Oh, that's cute," I muttered, running through the phone's menu for the _'delete'_ button. "See ya, spam. Deleted." I spoke just as I deleted it. Now, I'd only need to block this number... My thumb was already moving the screen to the _'recent numbers'_ list.

What...? That number was '_unknown'_...? How was that-- The cell beeped once more. "Huh?" I said, as the **1 NEW TEXT MESSAGE** display appeared yet again. Opening the text, I knew what it would be before I saw it.  
Though I knew...still, I hoped it wouldn't be...

**[Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. --The Reapers.] **

"...Still there." I sighed in aggravation, putting my right hand to my forehead. Stress was not what I needed right now. "It's like the junk mail from hell," I muttered. Somebody was obviously very bored to bother me with this.

That's when a huge surge of pain burned deeply through my right arm, down to my hand. I could have sworn everything went white there the instant it happened, too. "Oww!" I shouted, moving the pin to my left hand to try to see what the hell happened here. "My hand..." I whispered, staring at my palm in some form of horror.

The pain subsided, and in its place, the absolute most strangest thing I'd ever seen:

**_59:49_**

In. Big. Bold. Red.

They even had a fancy font.

Wait, it changed to _**59:48. **_

Now, _**59:47.**_

_**59:46.**_

My eyes widened.  
What the fucking hell? Why in the world was my hand _ticking numbers?_

More over, why was it ticking _down_ the numbers??

Before I got another second to figure that one out, the distant sound of static pursued from somewhere behind me. It got very loud, very quickly, and I turned around, to face what odd event waited for me now. I barely noticed the TVs that now had the message, **[YOU have SEVEN DAYS]** stamped on them; again, in big, bold red letters. But odd sound was not in the slightest bit what I might've expected to be caused from.

"What!?" I exclaimed, not believing what was before me.

A bunch of red, almost graffiti-looking patterns floated in the air, the strange noise obviously coming from them. They sounded like a TV, without an antenna so it only showed pure grey fuzz, with the volume turned up as loud as it would go. And the patterns turned and morphed, twisting disturbingly to become the shapes of a small figure. The core of the patterns turned green, revealing at last what I only assumed to be their true form.

Their 'true form' was about as weird as the enigmatic spam text. My arms spread out, and I took a step backwards. My number-ticking hand practically forgotten, I yelled frantically, "F...frogs!?"

A shout of pain was heard, and I realized it was my own. One of the graffiti-esque 'frogs' had lunged forward at me, striking my arm. I crouched over, grabbing my shoulder with what I knew was wasted effort. The attack had already made contact. The wound began bleeding. I could tell because when I pulled my hand away, droplets of crimson gooeyness decorated my skin.

"Oww! What the... _They attacked me!_"

I tried to stand up straight, tried to ignore the pain in my shoulder. "What do they want with me?" The frogs gathered closely together, as if preparing for a one-on-one fight.

Their opponent?  
Me.

"D-down, froggie..." I cried uselessly.

The world seemed to shift after that moment. Everything went vertigo, but quickly faded back to what it looked like twenty seconds ago. The one difference?  
Nobody was around anymore. I was the only one here...

The way-too-familiar-already static came back.

**_KKkkkSsSSHhhHHh  
_**  
Well, almost nobody.  
I guessed pretty soon that I wasn't able to fight back, or even defend myself against these creatures. That left me with all of one option.  
The green and red frogs began bouncing in the air, ready to take another whack at me. I spun on my heel, feeling the sting of the wind on my shoulder, and ran the other way.  
Didn't know where I was going, just needed to run.  
Without any warning, that same strong sense of vertigo struck me again at full force, and I fell to the ground, on my knees.

"...Ungh!" I groaned, panting heavily, vision blurring. Never mind the incessant ticking that was audible.  
Probably from my hand.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

"What the hell is going on!?" I shouted loudly.  
I noticed that the people had come back out of nowhere. "Somebody! Help!" I called out, trying to grab someone's -- anyone's -- attention.  
But nobody stopped walking.  
Nobody even turned my way.  
"Hey..." I tried again, well aware that the static hadn't faded yet, either. If I'd thought this place was loud before, it certainly couldn't get any louder now.  
"Everybody stop ignoring me!"  
Still, no reaction.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

"What is this place..." I moaned, forcing myself back to my feet, heartbeat racing. If those things--

_**kkKKsSsshHhhhHH**_

The static loud and clear, ringing in harmony with the clock's steady ticking in my ears.

"Crap! I gotta run!"

With no where to turn, no one to call, nothing to cling to, my feet thrummed against the pavement, and maybe one thing I knew certain:

Safe was no where in this world.

* * *

Sighing out of evident boredom, Koki Kariya spoke with his partner, "Man, here we go again..."

"Stop whining," Uzuki Yashiro snapped back, but kept a light, teasing tone. "We haven't had work in, like, forever."  
And that was true.  
Uzuki was tired of sitting around for days, no Players to erase, no chance to summon Noise to sick on said Players earning her points...

"Exactly," Kariya replied, twisting his lollipop in the corner of his mouth. Uzuki never saw the Harrier throw one lollipop away for another, even in all the time they'd been partnered. Surely, he'd have to at some point... "It feels like the Monday after vacation." he grinned to himself.

"You'd prefer a permanent vacation?" Uzuki asked Kariya, already guessing what his answer to that would be.  
"Day 1 has the most Players." Did she really need to explain this to him? Kariya said nothing yet, so she finished with, "Now's our chance to rack up some points!"

Uzuki couldn't help but smile at the thought. How long had she worked to earn points? How many Games had she played all for her one goal, a promotion?  
Was that so much to ask?  
Indeed, it was.  
That was why Reapers were given points, in Uzuki's mind. Not only for an extended life-span, but to work your way from bottom to the top.  
Prove your worth.

"How else you gonna make up for last month?" Uzuki questioned him harshly. It wasn't a secret that Kariya enjoyed slacking off. And after the nearly full two weeks without the Reaper's Game, on top of Kariya's lack of points in the Game before the break, it wasn't looking too good for her partner.

Just being Kariya, he gave a response Uzuki might've expected as much of. "Aight, aight... One week won't kill me," a pause. "...Probably." Kariya pulled the sucker out of his mouth. "Hey, while we're at it..."  
And Uzuki waited for the words he knew she'd be glad to hear. Uzuki loved a game, after all. "How 'bout we play a little game?" Kariya accented the word 'game' to sound more thrilling.

"A gaaame?" Uzuki chanted, suspicious already. Kariya often made his challenges far too easy for her. Intentional or not, that was how it would likely go. Kariya grinned.  
"Yeah, so it doesn't feel so much like work." Uzuki made a face at him.

Of course, anything to make this seem like less work to him.  
He amended with, "C'mon, you love it."  
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah. You know me."  
Uzuki sighed, giving in. "All right. What's the game?" Kariya began sucking on the lollipop again.

"How 'bout Reaper Sport 3, a Player Hunt? Let's see who bags the most Players during today's mission."

Uzuki had to laugh at him.  
"Are you joking?" she bit back another giggle. "That's no fun at all!"

Kariya faked sadness by frowning. "You don't like it?"

With a wave of her hand, dismissively, Uzuki answered, "But I'm gonna crush you! There's no contest!" she shook her head with a victory smile.

"Ohh, zing!" he pretended to be impressed. "Now I have to actually try." he shrugged, and went on, "You know the drill."  
Oh, of course she did.  
Kariya finished anyway.

"Loser buys winner a hot bowl of ramen."

* * *

"Huff, huff..."  
I breathed heavily, stopped running, and nearly collapsed then and there. In my direct view was a statue of what closely resembled a dog. Why was there a statue of a _dog_ here?  
How weird...

"Should be...safe...here..."  
The unclear-fuzzy-TV-mimicking I'd just barely escaped reared its ugly head back around me.

"Rrgh..." I grumbled, getting more pissed as I grew more tired.  
"Freakin' frogs!"  
At least the blood had stopped flowing somewhat.  
"Just leave me alone!" I shouted at them, waving my hand through the air. "I didn't do anything to you!"

More of the original tattoo red markings appeared, but they didn't come after me.  
Instead, the markings directed their focus to other people in the area, swarming down on them. Then, just like that, the patterns clinged to some people, choking them until they vanished in a burst of black and white smoke. A red line stained in the air where they'd grasped the peoplr. Slowly, it evaporated, too.

I gasped in horror. "They vanished!"  
More loudly this time, I said with fear, "Why are people disappearing!?" I could only stare on at the frogs that surrounded me. "Why am I even here?" My hands went to my head, as if I could force my mind back to the reality I hoped actually existed somewhere.

"What the hell!"

The frogs, three of them, jumped suddenly to me. I barely managed to avoid them. "They're gonna get me..."  
Whatever was going on, this was where it would end, I was sure of it. My memory couldn't tell me what happened to bring all this to me, and I got the feeling I should have known what happened.

Though I might never know...

"Found one!"  
A voice broke through the screams of the monsters.

"Huh?"  
I whirled around.

A girl with red hair ran up to me.  
She yelled at me, "You! Forge a pact with me!" I could tell she made a slightly worried face when she saw the gash on my shoulder.  
What did she mean by 'pact' though?

"Uhh..." I spat back the only response I could think of. "I've kinda got my hands full..."

Not letting up, the girl kept yelling, "Listen! If we forge a pact, we can beat the Noise!" There's that word again.

"Who cares about a little noise?"  
Could that be what these...things...were supposed to be?

"You wanna be erased? Hurry up! There's no time!" She jabbed a finger at the monsters. "Make a pact with me! Please!"

Still not understanding what was going on, I had to believe she knew what I didn't.  
"A-all right!" I stuttered.

"I accept."

What occurred next, happened so fast, that I wasn't even sure I'd seen it right.

She'd grabbed my hand, and both our bodies began to shine bright blue, while everything around us swirled and curved in distorted shapes, eventually going back to what could be taken as normal around here.  
About as normal as it gets, at least.

"What's with the light show?" I asked, blinking my eyes in an attempt to stop them from being blinded. I realized the cut sliced into my shoulder disappeared.

Instead of giving a straight response, she held out her hand to me.  
"Here!"

I looked down to her fist, not being able to see what was there. "Use this pin!" she explained, finally opening her fist to reveal a pin with a flame pattern designed onto it.

I took the pin, but continued, "But...the funny lights..." Why the hell was it that every time something else was triggered, the world would either change colors or spin and fade?!

She sighed, glaring now at the creatures. "I'll explain later!" she cried. "Right now we have to stop the Noise!"  
As if called to, one of the frogs kicked its legs at her, though she easily side-stepped it. I furrowed my brows, clutching the pin tightly. Could it really be used against these creatures?

"Uhh... Ok?" it sounded like a question.

She took a step back. "Get ready!"

I nodded slightly, doubting that this pin could do anything against the monsters. Shoved yet again to the vertigo; it wasn't so bad this time though, as I was gradually getting used to being under it's harmonic pull.

The girl was gone now. Crap. She was probably the only one who could have showed me how to fight them...

Two of the batch of frogs that surrounded me jumped forward. The only thing they could do was jump at ya, apparently.  
Involuntary reaction.  
My right arm moved to cover my face, in the process moving over and blocking my view of the frogs. A huge pillar of fire appeared where the frogs were, and they were engulfed in it. The Noise made one last sound of static, before a puff of smoke swallowed them, then they disappeared.

I froze, wide eyed, gaping at the spot where the thing used to be.

_How had...  
What...  
But that couldn't...  
I didn't really....  
No way..._

Many incoherent thoughts ran through my head, for the first time that day. The pin in my left hand was warm, just a little bit.

Would you look at that; pins could make pillars of fire that killed weird-looking frogs. Only here would such a thing be possible.  
And -- I stole one last glance at the pin -- it would seem that I was the one who activated the pin.  
I turned to face what remained of them.  
There were six left. All just bouncing wildly, but not yet taking a step to me. What had I done to activate the pin in the first place? I glared at each of them. All I'd really done was cover my eyes...that didn't seem like what would force the pin's ability out again.  
Maybe if I just...

Pressing my thumb on the pin harder, focusing intensely on it, I extended my right arm to point at one of the graffiti-designed frog.  
But still, there was nothing.

_Come on... Work, damn it!_

In a bit of frustration, I swung my extended arm from my left to my right, my index finger pointing without me really noticing it.  
That did it.  
A long trail of fire emerged from the ground, where I'd apparently pointed, as the pin I clutched grew hotter. It didn't hurt me, for some reason or another.

The trail of pure fire travelled to destroy four of the bastards.

_**SSssskkkkkktttTTzzZZzz--**_  
But the static was cut off each time with another sound similar when the green/red frogs disappeared in their own puffs of black and white fog.

I readied my hand and arm again, so that I could point to another.

'Alright...Two left, then I'll--' But before I could even finish that thought, the last two evaporated in a cloud just like the others.

_Wha...? But I didn't use the pin that time!_

Remembering for once the dizziness that was sure to come any second now, I just tried to keep from throwing up.  
When I reopened my eyes, all was quiet.

**Tick.**

_Other_ than that god-awful sound, that is.

But, the monsters looked to be gone. That must've been a first since I awoke.  
That girl was back, too.  
But I didn't pay her much mind just now.

"That fire..." I said mostly to myself. "I did that!?" It still seemed pretty odd to think that I caused the fire to come, even though it was the pin's power. However the heck pins had powers in the first place. That would be a mystery for another time.

"Woah!" the girl exclaimed, "You can use the pin?"  
She crossed her arms, so that her left hand gripped her waist and her right hand waves in the air. "You must be really good at psychs."

Excuse me? What was a-- "Guess I found the right partner, huh?" Her peppiness was staring to get annoying.

"That's what you call those flames?" I asked, hoping for a clear answer. "A psych?"

"Yup," I relaxed a little. It wasn't impossible to get a nice, straight answer out of her, then. She went on, "And now that we've made a pact, the Noise won't come after us!"

"In other words, we're safe." My palm held slightly up in the air, a casual stance for me.

She smiled kindly. It bugged me. "Right. See? All gone."

My eyes narrowed, and I echoed her, "All gone." I almost totally mocked her high pitched voice, at that, but some instinct of self-control held me back. She would definitely become annoying, I could tell.  
I shook my head, saying, "So...what are Noise?" This was starting to sound crazy, now that those creatures were gone. It's got to be a prank.  
Some sick, elaborate joke.

She gave me a slightly confused look. "They're those monsters we just fought. Duh."

_Monsters? Uh, sure... And "phychs"?_ --I glanced at the fire pin -- _Is that what this pin is for?_

She shifted her weight to the other leg. "Anyway, where are my manners?My name's Shiki Misaki."  
She put a hand to her collarbone, obviously pointing to herself. "Call me Shiki."

_I call this wack._  
I put my hand back to my forehead, staring off to my left. She didn't seem to notice my glance went in a different direction.

The girl, whose name already slipped my mind, moved her hand to her chin, still smiling. "We've got a long week ahead of us!"  
That caught my attention.  
No way in hell was I spending an entire week with this chick.

"A week? Week of what?"

She replied as if I should have known, but tried to be gracious about it. "The Reaper's Game is seven days long, right?"

I folded my arms.

_Reapers? Excuse me?_ I thought, non-existent trust in the girl getting an extra reason for it to be non-existent.  
_Who is this flake?_

I did hear her next words, though I didn't care enough to respond. "So what's your name?"  
No, I realized I just didn't care, period.

_Forget her...  
Where am I? How did I get here?_

"C'mon, tell me your name."

I strained my eyes to see the names on the signs across the lot.

_The sign says "Shibuya Station"... Why am I in Shibuya?_

No memory came to me when I tried to remember. No matter how badly I wanted to, the memory simply would not approach me. That seriously bites.

"Something wrong?"

_Wait... The intersection.  
_I thought, glancing over my shoulder back where I'd come to this area from. _I just need to retrace my steps._

I turned fully, and sprinted back to that huge intersection I'd originally woken up in. Maybe some explanation would be there.  
I barely heard the girl's gasp of surprise as I took off.  
Her words were very muffled, but if I heard correctly, "Hey, woah... Wait for me!!!"

_No._ I thought coldly. If she wanted to stay with me -- and I truly hoped she didn't -- she could keep up with me damn well.

When I got back to the intersection, I stopped running and looked in all directions, finally seeing her run up behind me. I gave her a bewildered stare. "Why are you following me!?"

Either ignoring my question or not hearing it -- which was unlikely -- she said instead, "Why are you making yourself so hard to follow?"  
She frowned sadly at me.

Oh, fuck that.  
"Screw you. I go where I want." I said sternly, crossing my arms once more, and choosing a slightly less offending term of use. Her expression didn't change. Girl doesn't take a hint.

"Go where?" she asked in turn. Taking on a harsher tone, she added, "We're trapped in here!"

What marbles had she lost today?  
"What? Don't be stupid." We could leave any freakin' time we wanted to. I was about ready to take off again as it was. Maybe she wouldn't follow...

"You're the one being stupid." she returned, but her sad eyes royally killed the statement. "We made a pact. We're supposed to stick together! You can't beat the Noise alone. You can't survive."  
All she ever does is go on and on...

"Survive what?" I snapped back, again, looking in another direction.

At last, she seemed to have developed a sense of anger. "The Game! Don't you wanna win?"

"Pfft," I rolled my eyes. "Play games on your own time."

She got a surprised look on her face. "Hey! That's not funny! They'll erase us if we don't win! You saw what happened to those people! You wanna join them?" She paused for a breath, then went on, with a more forced kindness now, "Besides, we're partners. Partners work together."

Nada.  
"No way! Don't make me a part of this." I turned so that she was now on my right, and only looking at half of me. It meant I wouldn't have to look her in those pathetic eyes anymore.

"You're already a part of this. You're a Player, just like me." She was quieter now, at least.

"A what?" I asked, tilting my head so I could partially glance at her. "I'm not playing anything."

"Oh yeah?" she challenged. "Then why do you have a Player Pin?" She pulled out the same black and white skull pin I first saw on me a while back from her jacket pocket. "Dont you have a timer on your hand? I do..." she stared at her hand.

Immediately, I did the same. The ticking got louder when I paid more attention to it.  
"What. The. Hell."  
I spoke clearly, emphasizing each word.  
It was down to **20:05** now.

How had that much time gone by so fast?

"See, you're part of the Reaper's Game, too." she finished.

"....." I couldn't say anything. I just held my palm right side up, gazing blankly as the numbers kept counting down.

_Tick._

**19:59**

_Tick._

**19:58**

_Tick._

**19:57**

What happens when it hits zero, I wonder...?

"Oh!" the girl gasped, "We don't have time for this! The clock's ticking! We've only got 20 minutes!"

Tell me something I don't know.

_Tick._

**19:53**

"Let's hurry to Ten-Four!" she exclaimed.

"'Ten-Four"?" I echoed. "What's that?"

"Ten-Four!" she repeated again. I raised an eye brow at her. Message was not received.  
Finally, she elaborated, "104? You got the mail, right? 'Reach 104 or face erasure.'"

_That junk mail..._  
_Please. What kind of nut would believe that? Then again..._ -- I turned back away from her -- _This day has been pretty weird.  
_I felt my expression harden at the next thought.  
_And she's gonna follow me anyway.  
_....  
_May as well go along and try to figure this out._

I sighed, giving in. "All right, you win. Lead the way." I spoke with about as much enthusiasm as a guy getting dragged by his girlfriend to a chick-flick. She gave me a stern look.

"Good. Now, for the last time... Tell me your name."

Did it really matter all that much? I didn't even remember her name, so I didn't see what it effected not knowing...  
Looking back though to her withering stare, I got the feeling I should just tell her before she turned this into some big thing.

"......" I breathed out, finally responding with, "Neku. Neku Sakuraba."  
Did I trust her with this? Of course not. The first thing she was bound to do was--

"Neku, huh? Cute name." she smiled again.

_Shut up.'_

I knew that'd be the first thing she said. Walked right into that one.

"All right, Neku. Let's get over to 104!" she had some unexplainable, rejuvenated energy. I sighed again, then took off towards the tall building with "104" stamped onto it. That must be the place, or Shibuya was in need of sign removal.

...At least, I thought I'd make for this "104".

In front of the building, I ran straight into something hard. Not only that, but whatever I'd run into had also sent a surge of pure electricity through my body, numbing myself momentarily. Needless to say, it hurt like hell.  
"Oww!" I gripped my hand. The one with the infamous timer on it.

For some reason, the electricity appeared to have pissed off the numbers, as they were now fading in and out with pain, like a swelling broken ankle, but in time with my heartbeat.  
Simply lovely.

"It's blocked! There's no way past!" I told the girl who just barely caught up with me. There was some sort of invisible wall blocking us out.  
Or keeping us in.

"We can't get through!? But this is the way to Ten-Four!"

The pain was almost completely gone now. Thank God.

"...." I turned around, looking through the intersection. Couldn't explain it, but I had the weirdest feeling. Almost like...

_Why do I feel like I'm being watched?  
_

My eyes caught on some random guy standing still in the middle of the crowd. He was wearing a red hooded jacket with a black visor underneath, which just happened to cover his eyes entirely.

_That guy over there. What's he staring at?_  
Even though there was a good 20 foot distance, I thought I heard the guy say, "Pact confirmed."

The sound of something disarming intruded the busy intersection. That girl stood beside me, looking upon the invisible wall. "What are we gonna do about this wall?" I didn't move. My eyes were still glued to the guy I could swear was watching us. "Huh? Neku! It's open!" she called out from behind me.

"Hm?" I quickly looked in her direction. "What's up with that?"  
I reached out my hand to touch where the wall is. And what do you know, the over-peppy chick was right. No wall remained.

She ran back up to me. "No idea," she shrugged. "A lucky break, I guess!"

Luck doesn't happen around here.

"C'mon, we gotta keep moving." she waved her hand as a gesture towards 104. I didn't run just yet.

_Something about that guy in red..._  
I turned back around again. That guy had something to do with this, didn't he?  
"Huh?"  
The dude in red was no where to be seen. Poof. Gone.

_Where'd he go? Weird._  
I high-tailed it to 104, following after the stalker.

"Made it!" she smiled, as we approached 104. The sound of something fading was able to get past my headphones, and that incredible ticking finally silenced.

"The timer vanished!" I was surprised. Kind of. We finished the mission? Well, that was good.  
How different everything was without a clock ticking down your last minutes...

The girl, my unfortunate partner, let out a sigh of relief. "Whew! Mission complete."

_"Pfft, big deal."_

The girl gasped, my head snapped up from my hand.

"What?" I called out.  
Who was that?

I couldn't see anybody around that was talking...

_"Only an idiot would screw up on Day 1."_ She laughed.

"Who's there!?" my head turned left and right, but no one other than everyone who couldn't see us was around. \

"Oh, no... A Reaper?" My partner spoke quietly. She was just afraid, I suppose.

"Reaper..." The word was odd. And yet, it seemed to fit our situation perfectly. How many people ever used that title anyway?

The unknown, invisible girl continued, _"You two are gonna get erased sooner or later. So come on."_  
It was almost like the voice was coming from...above us. But, Reapers didn't fly.  
Did they...?  
I shook my head, wondering why I exactly had that thought.

_"Help a girl out and earn me a few extra points, 'K?"_ the voice crooned.

And the voice was cut off by a very loud sound.

Ugh, not this again...

Those damned frogs appeared before us, coming into existence once more by the red graffiti morphing and curving until it turned to Noise.

"Those monsters again..." I glared at them. Go _away,_ already.

The girl turned to me. "Neku, you know how to fight now, right?"  
If using a pin all of once counted as knowing.  
"This time focus your thoughts on me!"  
And no way was that possible.

"What?" How could I 'focus my thoughts' on her while still fighting? "Fight your own battles!" I snapped back. Her voice became some-what pleading.

"Please! To stop the Noise!" A very low grunt escaped my throat. She hadn't heard it.

"...Fine," I muttered in response. "Come on!"

It wasn't so hard concentrating on her like myself. A few things to note, though:  
One, when she got hurt, I felt it, too.  
Two, when one of us picked off a Noise, it was removed from the other one's field.  
Three, this really weird green light would bounce back and forth between us. From me, to her, back to me, and finally back to her. What was weird about it was that I got the feeling that my attacks became stronger when the green orb switched to me. It probably worked the same for her, as well.

After one round, we were back at 104.

"Good!" She still panted, though. "Now we can fight together! We can beat the Noise faster as a team!"  
She had no clue how much the 'as a team' part got to me.

"Let's do this!" The both of us turned around, in sync with each other, as another frog Noise lunged for us. It was killed some-what easy enough.

"Is it over?" I asked with slight annoyance. How many of these things were there, anyway?

She gasped. "Not yet, Neku! Over there!" Her hand flung out to point behind me. Turning to face that direction, I could see a larger tattoo looming in.

_Whew... This one looks tough._  
The kinds of noises this Noise made were different from others, but only slightly. Instead of ear-splitting static, it made an almost 'whirling' sort of sound. Like, the wind going crazy out side during a hurricane. And still loud, but that was a given.  
There was only one way to kill it. To face it head-on.  
No other way.

_...Like I've got a choice._ Not looking back, I called out, "Hey! Stalker!"

She immediately shot back, "I'm not a stalker!" Could have fooled me.

I sighed. "Whatever. Just... Don't mess this up!" This Noise would most likely be stronger than the frogs, considering the different types of ear-bleeding noises it existed with. I did not need dead weight holding me back, now more than ever. Stalker breathed in, as if making up her mind if I'd actually said that. Yes, yes I had.

"I...I won't!" Her voice wavered a bit, perhaps I'd insulted her. But what difference should that make to me?

The battle began, this time against a different Noise. What looked to be a grizzly bear with skeleton arms stood tall, but it didn't move around much. In fact, the only trouble it had given me was when it occasionally swatted me with it's bone-like hands. It died in the same puff of smoke that the other Noise had.

When it was over, I bent down, my hands falling to my knees, holding me up. Fighting was something I wasn't used to.

"Whew... We did it..." Stalker breathed a sigh of relief. "But you heard her... Day 1 is nothing. What if the missions only get harder?"  
Chances were, they would.  
"We've got six more days..."  
Thank you, Captain Obvious.  
"Are we gonna make it?"  
We have to.

Her head fell a bit. "I... I don't want to be erased..." She pulled out her phone, staring at the screen absently.

_I can't believe this..._  
My hands went to my head, trying so hard to hold my mind from going insane.  
_Why am I stuck here? What if I'm erased!?_

I wasn't sure what erasure exactly was, but going off what happened to those people before...

_What the hell kind of game is this? This can't be right._

What kind of sick, twisted world have I been pushed into?

_Gaaah!_

Reality finally made sense to me now.

Reality was the Reaper's Game.

_I'm really stuck here?' 'In Shibuya!?_

**[the first day]  
**_"Reaper's Game"_  
**[chapter closed]**


End file.
